K R Khan, Kalraj Mishra, Vinay Katiyar elected to RS

New Delhi, Mar 28 (UNI) Deputy Chairman K Rahman Khan (Congress), BJP leaders Kalraj Mishra and Vinay Katiyar, senior Congress leader Satyavrat Chaturvedi (BJP) and veteran SP leader Janeshwar Mishra were among 20 candidates elected to the Rajya Sabha from four states in the biennial elections held today.

Mr Tapan Kumar Sen, Mr Mainul Hassan Ahamed, Mr Saman Pathak (all CPI-M), Dr Barun Mukherjee (Forward Bloc) and Mr Mukul Roy of the Trinamool Congress were elected to the Upper House from West Bengal.

While it was a cakewalk for Mr Khan, Mr Shanappa and Mr Murthy owing to their parties' strength in the Karnataka Assembly, there was a keen fight for the fourth seat among three independent candidates, including eminent litterateur U R Ananthamurthy.

However, it was Mr Chandrasekhar who eventually won the election, with the maximum number of votes polled -- 53.

Dr Ananthamurthy had to be content with just 24 votes.

In Uttar Pradesh all five candidates of the ruling Samajwadi Party won the biennial elections to the Rajya Sabha, while BJP stalwarts Kalraj Mishra and Vinay Katiyar were re-elected.

Jagran group CMD and CEO of Channel 7, Mahendra Mohan Gupta, traders leader Banwari Lal Kanchal and former UP Advocate General Virendra Bhatia (all SP) made their maiden entry into the RS.

Veteran SP leader Janeshwar Mishra was also re-elected.

SP-supported Maulana Mahmood Madni (RLD) also got the nod.

Others to romp home are Mr Veerpal Singh Yadav (SP), Mr Monkhad Ali and Mr Balihari (BSP).

Out of 13 candidates in fray, the lone Congress candidate Azad Kumar Kardam, Satish Chandra (BSP) and Industrialist Sudhanshu Mittal (Indpendent), a rather suprise candidate, were eliminated as they could not muster a mimimum of 18 votes required as the first preference votes.

In Uttaranchal Congress candidate Satyavrat Chaturvedi defeated his only competitor BSP candidate R K Verman, by 28 votes to win the Rajya Sabha seat from Uttaranchal.

Mr Chaturvedi and Mr R K Verman polled 39 and 11 votes respectively. In the election, while Uttarakhand Kranti Dal supported BSP, BJP refrained from casting their vote.

In Bengal Kolkata Corporation former Mayor Subrata Mukherjee of the Congress lost the battle as he failed to garner enough first preferential votes in a keenly contested poll. Mr Mukherjee got only 33 votes, including six from among the non-Congreess members of the House.

All the Left Front candidates together polled 190 votes, each needing about 48 first preferential votes, while the Trinamool candidate could garner 56 votes.

Earlier, the counting of votes in Uttar Pradesh was delayed by one-and-a-half hours following complaints of rigging against the ruling SP by the Congress and the BJP.

Meanwhile, the election to the UP legislative council also concluded with 13 candidates -- six from SP, three each from BSP, BJP and one from RLD -- getting elected to the upper house.

The elected candidates include Naresh Chandra Uttam, Khawaja Halim, Kashinath, Rakesh Singh Rana, Ramsharan Das, Dayaram Prajapati (all SP), Harpal Singh Saini (RLD), Ramapati Ram Tripathi, Ashok Dhawan, Ramnaresh Rawat (all BJP), Babu Singh Kushawaha, Jugal Kishore and Sunil Kumar (all BSP).

Matiur Rahman from Congress was the only candidate to be eliminated.

Biennial elections were held to fill 59 seats in the Rajya Sabha from 15 states.

UNI Team SC GC2219